I've fallen behind in reading again, oops, but once again I will at least comment on the Latin: it translates fairly straightforwardly to "He/she/it has ears, and will not hear." (There's no pronoun, so the verbs can function for any third person singular.)
Presumably it's a quote (or semi-quote) from Psalm 115? (More modern translation here.)
I know how the faux-peasant feels at the beginning of this chapter, when he’s at peace for a moment in the evening silence, surrounded by the sea-breeze. There’s something about strong winds and silence that I’ve always found really calming.
Of course it doesn’t last, and by the end of the chapter the tocsins are ringing and there’s no more peace, but I can’t feel too bad about this guy’s peace being disturbed. Except, knowing Hugo, the faux-peasant won’t be the loser in this situation.
I’ve been sick all day so I’m just going off on stupid tangents. Don’t mind me.
So the title translates as something like “[one] has ears but doesn’t hear.” I don’t think I ever bothered to look it up my first time around, maybe I read it as ears which see but don’t hear? Like, he sees the bells but doesn’t hear them, oh well.
Reminds me of that Scottish prayer; “Some have meat but cannot eat/Some want meat but lack it/But we have meat and we can eat/And so the lord be thankit.” In particular it reminds me of this because I’ve had food accessible but can barely keep anything all down for most of the day. Also that rhyme scheme is amusing. So I wonder if we’re supposed to think of Mysterious Stranger as lacking in some way? He heard the conversation between the women last chapter, and didn’t really pay it to mind—even when he can physically hear people, it doesn’t really seem to make an impact on him in any way.
"For the moment, it seemed to him that in escaping from the sea which had been so inexorable to him, and in touching land, all danger had vanished. No one knew his name, he was alone, lost to the enemy, without a trace left behind him, for the surface of the sea betrays nothing, concealed, ignored, not even suspected." It’s an advantage to him not to have anyone know his name, that keeps him out of danger. No matter how important he thinks he is, his fame and any rank he could pull isn’t an asset to him at this point.
"But this belfry appealed alternately open and closed at regular intervals; its lofty window showed all white, then all black; the sky could be seen through, then it was seen no longer; it would be light, then eclipsed, and the opening and shutting followed each other a second apart, with the regularity of a hammer on an anvil." No matter what spiritual life they can provide, at this point the churches of France are most important as physical objects. They are instruments, literal and figurative, of their time and place, and they’re used for communicating some message, making things clear as black and white. What this message is, we don’t know, but it’s the physicality and historical grounding that gives them importance.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-05-05 05:06 am (UTC)Presumably it's a quote (or semi-quote) from Psalm 115? (More modern translation here.)
1.4.2
Date: 2014-05-05 01:34 pm (UTC)Of course it doesn’t last, and by the end of the chapter the tocsins are ringing and there’s no more peace, but I can’t feel too bad about this guy’s peace being disturbed. Except, knowing Hugo, the faux-peasant won’t be the loser in this situation.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-06 06:25 am (UTC)So the title translates as something like “[one] has ears but doesn’t hear.” I don’t think I ever bothered to look it up my first time around, maybe I read it as ears which see but don’t hear? Like, he sees the bells but doesn’t hear them, oh well.
Reminds me of that Scottish prayer; “Some have meat but cannot eat/Some want meat but lack it/But we have meat and we can eat/And so the lord be thankit.” In particular it reminds me of this because I’ve had food accessible but can barely keep anything all down for most of the day. Also that rhyme scheme is amusing. So I wonder if we’re supposed to think of Mysterious Stranger as lacking in some way? He heard the conversation between the women last chapter, and didn’t really pay it to mind—even when he can physically hear people, it doesn’t really seem to make an impact on him in any way.
"For the moment, it seemed to him that in escaping from the sea which had been so inexorable to him, and in touching land, all danger had vanished. No one knew his name, he was alone, lost to the enemy, without a trace left behind him, for the surface of the sea betrays nothing, concealed, ignored, not even suspected." It’s an advantage to him not to have anyone know his name, that keeps him out of danger. No matter how important he thinks he is, his fame and any rank he could pull isn’t an asset to him at this point.
"But this belfry appealed alternately open and closed at regular intervals; its lofty window showed all white, then all black; the sky could be seen through, then it was seen no longer; it would be light, then eclipsed, and the opening and shutting followed each other a second apart, with the regularity of a hammer on an anvil." No matter what spiritual life they can provide, at this point the churches of France are most important as physical objects. They are instruments, literal and figurative, of their time and place, and they’re used for communicating some message, making things clear as black and white. What this message is, we don’t know, but it’s the physicality and historical grounding that gives them importance.